New report praises Turkish finance resilience in crisis

The resilience of Turkey's financial sector has been praised by a new report saying the sector as a whole was much less affected by the global crisis than its global peers, highlighting asset quality, capital adequacy, risk management and internal controls as leading factors in this success. In the report released yesterday, Deloitte Turkey forecast growth of 3.7 percent this year, a modest estimate compared to others, such as Credit Agricole Chevreux's 6.1 percent. "Many big banks in developed countries closed 2009 with losses reaching into the billions of dollars, but the Turkish banking system didn't enter the orbit of the global crisis," said Ayse Epikman, a Deloitte Turkey partner. The report noted that Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's all upped Turkey's long-term credit rating in the period.